(15 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
Loading...How often do you meet a Team Leader with genuine appreciation and concern for his team? A leader who, instead of focusing on the problem analyzes the “why” and is curious to find a solution?
Meet Alex, a Pentalog Team Leader from Cluj. His focus is on setting the right tone and encouraging the exchange of ideas within his team while building a successful Team Leader career.
Together, they are working for a growing FinTech company currently expanding its UK, US and Asia-Pacific footprint. The start-up offers highly innovative solutions to enable its clients to mitigate risk in buying and selling financial instruments – what the industry refers to as ‘collateral management’.
The innovation? This software is cloud based – a first in the industry.
The technical environment is based on JavaScript, ExpressJs, NodeJs and MySql database to serve and capture data on REST endpoints, while the Front-end is built on ReactJs, Websockets, HTML5, CSS3, TypeScript. Tests are written with Jasmine and Jest.
A Professional Journey Led by a Passion for IT
Alex started his professional adventure as a support guy on a B2B solution. Meanwhile, he began studying and working as a freelance developer on PHP, Joomla, and WordPress. His passion led him to transform this hobby into a career. Later on, he combined all his previous experience and enrolled for a Team Leader position.
Our guy is a forward thinking man who sensed that IT is the future. He predicted the IoT era and this is what fascinates him – it still does.
Alex’s love of computers and all-things tech dates back to high school. He first learned Pascal and Fox Pro and created an app for accountants. His dream was to create games for himself and his friends which he now jokes about because he still uses his gamification skills to find new ways of engaging and motivating his team.
A Team Leader is “a third force, one who builds the playground in order for the team to discuss and share ideas”.
Becoming a Team Leader
In Alex’s case it wasn’t an outright decision, but rather being the right man in the right place at the right time that led him up the ladder to becoming a leader. It’s as if he had been preparing for this role for his entire life.
In college, he was involved in lots of student associations and as a support professional he worked with a plethora of people from all different walks of life.
Know that nothing is arbitrary. It was this 1-2 combination punch of technical skills plus life experience that gifted him both the hard and soft skills to succeed in his new position.
Alex is simply a people person who also happens to be a great programmer!
“It’s not an easy job, but a rewarding one.” according to him. He adds that if you’re open-minded, love solving puzzles, and enjoy being involved, then a Team Leader position just might suit you.
“A Team Leader thinks before he speaks. The trouble is never at the surface where everyone can see. It’s always hidden and needs to be understood.”
When asked for his definition of a team, he simply smiles and, instead of a definition, he says, “Family.” How great is that?
“You spend one third of your life at work and have the privilege of having 2 families. The team should of course act as a whole, but be creative as individuals. It’s a blessing that we’re different and don’t have similar backgrounds or visions. A team should encourage sharing ideas and having open discussions. To put it shortly – you’re never alone.”
Successful Team Leader Career?
While acting as a facilitator for his team’s success, he does make decisions based on their skills and needs.
He is fascinated by human nature, conflicts, reactions, or the fact that the issue sometimes has its roots in the past. When trying to define the most important abilities a Team Leader should have, Alex says that patience is key – patience and the ability to coach people.
“Basically, you have to help them find the answers to their puzzles by themselves.”
And now, let’s see how Alex’s team defines their Team Leader:
Success means something different to everyone. Alex defines success as doing what you love and giving it 100%. Moreover, he says that success as far as teamwork can be defined as “harmony”.
Do you see some of Alex’ qualities in yourself?
If you enjoy working with people and helping them evolve; if you have a passion for coding – join us! We have many projects waiting for the right people at the right time.
daniel
October 1, 2019 at 7:52 pm EDTI must disagree with one things: TeamLead qualities should be public. What’s the use to have them if they are not exposed?
Alex
November 5, 2019 at 1:54 pm ESTYup, good catch! Those qualities should be public, especially if the public is your team, but on the other sense of the word those qualities are belonging to yourself, they are your treasure, those things make you special, and you must protect it.